Crescendo
by TheLokiExperience
Summary: Tensions are rising as war looms on the horizon. Teenage Augment Estelliana is determined to find her father, Khan - who has escaped Starfleet custody. Angel struggles with her own demons - but she'll need to overcome them if she's going to face the future. Jim/OC; Chekov/OC. ON HIATUS.


**Chapter One: The Light Won't Find You**

* * *

**A/N: So we finally got around to writing the sequel. So far this is just to test the waters and see what you think. If there isn't much of a response, then we'll probably end up deleting the story. So let us know what you think.**

* * *

Angel sat at he table in her apartment, legs hugged to her chest, surfing her laptop. She had tried to sleep but it had resulted in her rolling around, trying not to disturb Jim. She sipped her coffee as she glanced towards the bedroom where she could see his sleeping figure, spread across the bed on his stomach. She glanced back at her screen and continued to scroll through her notes.

She wasn't sure how long had passed when Jim's voice brought her from her thoughts, but it gave her a fright. "What are you doing?"

"Research." She replied after a moment, crossing her legs.

Jim rolled out of the bed, flattening his hair. "On?"

"Disease." She smiled as he leant over her chair, kissing her cheek.

He looked over her shoulder, trying and failing to understand what the paragraph she was reading was about. "Which disease?"

"A few different ones." She told him as she continued to scroll down the page.

"Huh. Why the interest?" He asked as he went in search of food.

Angel gnawed on her lip as she continued to read. "Distraction. Something to take my mind off things with Stell."

"Ah. You're still worried about her." He glanced at her before making a coffee, walking over and handing her a full mug and taking her old one to the sink.

"Of course I am." Angel was a little taken aback that he thought she'd have stopped worrying. Stell was one of her closest friends.

"I'm sure she's alive." Jim assured her, but he knew that her fears didn't stem from thinking she was dead. "But that's not what you're worried about."

Angel frowned, looking up from her laptop. "What do you mean?"

"You know she's alive. It's that she's with Rin that concerns you." He told her, watching as she closed down her laptop and raked her hair back from her face. "You okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine." Angel got to her feet, leaning back against him as he put his arms around her.

He murmured against her neck, placing a light kiss to her cheek. "We will find her."

"I hope so." Angel sighed heavily, unable to stop herself from relaxing slightly.

"Stress less. It's our break." He told her, resting his head on hers as he pulled her closer. "What did you want to do today?"

Angel yawned. "Just be with you. Distract me from all this."

"Did you want to see the others?" He questioned, receiving a shake of her head for an answer. "Just me?"

Angel nodded, smiling. "Just you."

* * *

Estelliana Noonien Singh trailed her toes through the crystal-blue water of the pool, a scowl on her face. This was the fifth resort they had been to on the ultimate spa planet of Lumia. She had assumed Rin would take her somewhere isolated when he had said three months ago that her former crewmates would never find her. Instead, he had taken her somewhere they blended in.

"Smile," Rin stated as he sat down beside her. "It's good for you."

Stell glanced at him. Although she had spent much of her time plotting her escape – and attempted two, which hadn't worked in her favour – Rin had been thoroughly enjoying soaking up the sun. Or so it would seem. They had also been visited by Josh and Niel, who were determined to continue provoking the war between Starfleet and the Klingons that Rin had started. There had only been a few skirmishes so far, but Stell was afraid for her friends – and for Niel, excitable and naïve. A fool despite his intelligence.

"What did you tell this place?" Stell asked of Rin, knowing that he had been coming up with various covers for them depending on where they went. "Siblings? Cousins? Boyfriend and girlfriend?"

"Husband and wife," Rin said with a shrug, words that sent a shiver down Stell's spine. She had become accustomed to acting like a couple over the past few months, but that didn't mean she enjoyed it. She missed her father. She missed her friends. She missed Chekov.

"I'm seventeen," Stell reminded him, trailing her fingers over her stomach. The bump of her pregnancy was only slight, but it was still there. "Wonder how they bought that."

"They saw your stomach," Rin stated with some smugness.

"Oh." Stell got to her feet, wrapping her towel around her. It confused her, the way Rin behaved. If he was utterly cruel to her, she would have reason to despise him. Yet now he made attempts at kindness, as if in his mind, they really were some kind of couple. "Where is the room? I want to go sleep."

"I'll take you." Rin took her hand in his, a gesture to, that any staff of the resort, would have looked romantic. Like they really were husband and wife. But Stell knew he was attempting to control her, unwilling to risk her escaping him when she carried his son.

Stell stepped into the resort room when Rin swiped the pass, and once again she wondered how Rin managed to afford it. It wouldn't surprise her if he had stolen money from someone. Her dark green eyes raked critically over the cream colours, the plush king-sized bed. That was another part of the discomfort: having to share a bed with him.

"You can go and swim if you like," Stell said innocently.

"I don't want to." Rin sank into a seat and watched her intently. He'd experienced two escape attempts already and he wasn't foolish enough to believe that Stell wouldn't try again. "I'll stay here while you sleep."

"I won't be able to sleep with you watching me," Stell stated brusquely, slipping into the bathroom and changing into an oversized shirt of Rin's. She inspected herself in the mirror, but she could hardly see any of the changes that three months had brought about. There was the very slight swell of her stomach, but that was about all. She exited the bathroom and frowned. "Why do you look at me so often? Is it because I'm pregnant?"

Rin shrugged his powerful shoulders. "I'm excited to see our child born."

"We will need a medic for his birth," Stell remarked curtly, pushing the blankets back and slipping beneath them. There had not been much morning sickness during these first few months of pregnancy, but she had been tired very easily. She wondered if it had been like this for her mother, who had been only a few years older when she had been pregnant with Stell. Her heart surged with longing, and she hated Rin even more for depriving her of Rhyne.

Stell had hoped that maybe it would all go away, that she might be able to rid herself of the child. But it was so hard when some of the time, Niel was right there in front of her. What would happen to him if she aborted the tiny baby version of himself? Would he simply disappear? Then there was the fact that the further along her pregnancy progressed, the more difficult it would become for her to remove the child.

"We will find one," Rin assured her.

Stell curled on her side, back to him. His presence often made her uncomfortable, especially when she was trying to sleep. After a moment, a sudden movement in her stomach made Stell yelp and sit up, hand flying to her slight bump. Nothing like that had happened before, and her heart raced as she realised that the baby was moving.

"What is it? Are you alright?" Rin's voice was concerned, as it always was when something related to the health of the baby.

"It just…it moved." Stell kept a hand on her stomach for a few moments. "I think he's kicking."

Rin pushed himself up from the chair and walked over to her. Stell shrank away from him, more instinctively than anything. He merely sighed impatiently, used to such reactions by now.

"Can I feel?"

"Okay," Stell said reluctantly, shifting across slightly so that Rin could sit beside her. He leaned across and placed his hand on her stomach, grinning as he felt the baby moving inside her.

"He's strong."

"He is," Stell murmured. "Little Niel."

"Get some sleep." Rin drew his hand away and pushed himself up off the bed. Stell knew that he wasn't about to leave, frustrating her. It had been a while since her last attempt at escape, and he still didn't trust her. She was going to have to try and prove herself to him, although she didn't know how long that was going to take.

"Do you love me?" she asked of him, her voice faltering slightly. Why was she even asking? She knew the answer to her own question.

"In a way," Rin replied enigmatically, grey eyes glittering. "Now, sleep."

* * *

Angel watched as the screens flashed, signalling the end of a test. She hated test time. "So?"

"You're going to need to keep taking the meds." Bones told her, looking over the screen. Physically she was fine and fit, mentally not so much. "What? You're still considered psychologically unfit for duty."

Angel frowned. She felt fine. She _was _fine, and she wished people would stop telling her that she wasn't. "I'm fine."

"No you aren't. Sit down." Bones ordered, looking over the paperwork in her file, which seemed to grow more and more.

Angel reluctantly sat down, not wanting to argue. "I'm fine, Bones. I haven't had a panic attack in over a month and the nightmares are getting better."

"Getting better? Have you had any recently?" He questioned, pulling out another vial of medicine for her after she had finished, or thrown out, the last lot.

She sighed heavily. She wasn't going to lie. She had been having nightmares but they were becoming less frequent and not as violent. "Yeah, but they aren't as bad."

"They're still occurring, which is bad enough." He pointed out to her. She had PTSD, both of them knew that, and as much as he knew she wanted to think she was handling it, she wasn't handling it.

"Am I fine physically?" She sighed heavily, kicking her heels against the bed.

Bones nodded, apart from her knee still in healing stages she was perfectly sound. "Mostly. Have you told Jim?"

Angel shook her head, leading Bones to frown. "Not yet."

"It's been what, four months?" He asked, remembering the conversation they'd had about her telling him.

"I know, but there's never a convenient time. I mean I'm not going to tell him when there's a ton of people around and when we're alone we don't... we do non talking things." She blurted out in a flurry of words, trying to cover up for the fact that she didn't want him to think she was weak.

"Surely you don't do non-talking things every time you're alone." Bones rolled his eyes.

"Most of the time we do." Angel informed him, turning defensive when she groaned at the mental image. "You asked."

Boned shook his head, turning the subject away from his friend's sex lives. "How's the kid doing?"

"He's not good. Maybe you should examine him." She suggested, trying to keep the conversation away from her. That was one of her defence mechanisms, one Bones knew all too well.

"Examine him for what? Heartbreak? Please." He scoffed. Chekov was sad, but fine. Bones had been worried at first about his mental state but after speaking with him, he deemed it wasn't anything serious that would affect his work. Sure, he was heartbroken and unfit to date, but not unfit to do his job properly. "He's undergone evaluation."

"Are we done here?" She questioned impatiently, wanting nothing more than to leave and run far away from the hospital. "Are we?"

"Angel, stop being so impatient. I know you want to be fit for duty, but..." Bones trailed off, not wanting to get on her bad side or have her yell at him like previous times they had spoken. He had to tread carefully around the unstable woman. "But you aren't. Not yet."

"This is bullshit. I'm fine, Bones." Angel scowled, crossing her arms over her chest.

"First you were in a crash, then you were captured by a psychotic Augment... I'm the chief medical officer here, and what I say goes. If I say you're unfit, you aren't going to be cleared. You had a traumatic thing happen to you, Angel." He sighed heavily, his voice softening. She was his friend and he wanted to see her get better but she just wasn't helping herself.

"Shit happens. People get over it." Angel snapped. It was true, that's how life worked.

Bones shook his head. It wasn't an overnight process and sometimes it took years, but she couldn't seem to understand that. "Not that easily."

"Whatever. I'm done." She threw her hands up before stalking out of the room.

* * *

If there was one thing Stell enjoyed about the resort that she hadn't been able to experience on the _Enterprise_, it was a hot bubble bath. She had ran the water so hot that it seared her skin when she first slid in, the bubbles swamping her. A knock on the door made her eyes flick open, and she slid further down into the bubbles to prevent anything from being seen.

"Come in." Rin sauntered into the bathroom, and Stell couldn't help but narrow her eyes. Couldn't she have any alone time? It seemed that he was always around, watching her with that impassive grey gaze of his. "What brings you in here?"

"Boredom," Rin stated, leaning against the bathroom sink.

"There's a pool and an entire resort to amuse you." She scoffed. Her bath didn't quite feel the same now, and the water was getting colder anyway. She reached for her towel. "Turn around."

Rin's eyes raked over her. "I've seen it all before."

"I said turn around," Stell commanded. She didn't care whether Rin had seen her naked, his gaze made her uncomfortable in any case. Rin rolled his eyes, but turned away as Stell pulled her towel around her. She flattened her dark hair, which had fluffed up from the steam. "What do you want?"

"Company," Rin said simply as she turned back to face her. Stell didn't believe that for a moment. With Rin, there was always an ulterior motive.

"You don't even like me." Stell trailed into the room, searching through the few clothes she had for some to wear. Rin at least had the decency to pretend to take in the view while she changed into them, annoyed as ever by the fact that her stomach was starting to protrude. It was the waiting that irritated her the most – the fact that Rin was waiting for her to give birth while Josh and Niel caused more chaos.

"Stop it," Stell frowned when she noticed that Rin was watching her again. "Go and do something."

Rin walked across to her and grabbed her by the waist, pulling her close and kissing her. She wondered if that was why he had been watching her. Stell responded by biting down on his bottom lip, but Rin just seemed to take that as a challenge. He attacked her neck instead, pressing hot kisses to her skin. Stell squirmed uncomfortably against him, wondering if he had completely lost his mind.

Rin nibbled at her neck, running his hands up her sides. Already, he could feel how her body was changing. Her breasts were fuller, the swell of her stomach evident underneath his fingertips. He frowned as she caught his wrists, pushing him away and glaring at him with angry green eyes.

"What the hell are you doing?" Stell demanded, "I'm pregnant."

"I don't want sex," Rin drawled, raising an eyebrow. "Just some fun."

"How can we have fun if it's not sex?" Stell asked, alerting him to just how naïve she was. Of course, despite being pregnant, she had only had sex with Chekov once, and it had only taken Rin a few weeks to put the baby in her.

"Many ways," Rin replied, a smirk tweaking at the corners of his lips. Stell responded by smacking him across the face, making him rub his cheek ruefully. He was used to being hit by humans – and being hit by Stell hurt more than that. "What was that for?"

"It could be because you were trying to touch me," Stell said acidly, "Or it could simply be because I don't like you."

"Fucking hormonal pregnant teenager," Rin muttered irritably.

Stell sat down on the bed. "Three of those things are your fault."

"It'll be your fault when all your little friends are dead because you won't behave," Rin hissed, causing Stell to examine him incredulously. He no longer had Jim and Angel to threaten her into good behaviour. He didn't have anyone, but she didn't doubt his abilities to find them.

"You really have problems."

"No, you're the one with the problems," Rin snapped in response.

"Yeah. You." Stell got to her feet. "The 'problem' that killed my mum."

"It was an accident." Rin had the good grace to at least be defensive about it, although she doubted he was entirely remorseful. He hadn't wanted to kill Rhyne, but that didn't mean he regretted doing it. "She shouldn't have gotten in the way."

"Of you trying to rape me," Stell said dryly. It didn't affect her as it once might, but the memory of the first time she had ever been kissed by someone was harrowing. "Yes, she should definitely have just let that happen."

"It wasn't rape." Smugness crept into Rin's tone. "You would've come around to the idea."

Stell grabbed a lamp, ripped it free of the wall and hurled it at him. She had only been a child, fourteen years old at the time. Nothing Rin did could have made her want him when she'd been that young. Rin dodged the lamp and it smashed on the opposite wall as Stell gritted her teeth, seething.

"The only way you getting me pregnant wasn't rape was because I thought of Chekov. All the time, every time."  
That hit a nerve with him. Rin's countenance darkened and he clenched his jaw, stalking over to her at the mention of Chekov. Stell lifted her chin and smirked, safe in the knowledge that he would not dare hurt her while she carried his child.

"I know where their ship is," Rin informed her, grabbing her by the arms so tight she would have bruises. "Maybe I should go get dear Chekov."

She laughed mockingly. "Why? Because I liked it when I had sex with him?"

"No," Rin's eyes narrowed and his grip on her tightened. "So I can rip his throat out and make you watch."

"Maybe I'll go get my father," Stell countered softly, and Rin released her and stepped back. It struck her that she hadn't talked about Khan in months, and despite the sneer that now crossed Rin's face, she knew that he still feared her father.

"You could try."

* * *

Bones had been deciding whether or not to give Jim the file for close to an hour, unsure as to whether he was willing to break Angel's trust. Jim needed to know, and that thought had led him to his friend's door and into their house. He stood there with the file in his hand, watching as Jim made them both a coffee.

"I wanted you to read this.' Bone told him as Jim sat at the table. Bones slid the file across to Jim before taking a sip of his coffee, sincerely hoping he wasn't going to regret this later.

Jim frowned as he picked it up, flicking through it. Great, more reading, he thought. "What's it about?"

"Angel's medical file." Bones explained as Jim began to read over it, raising an eyebrow at his friend's decision to bread patient-doctor confidentiality. "I'm worried about her.'

"Why?" Jim frowned as he read through the notes.

"She isn't coping very well." Bones informed him. Every session had been getting progressively worse as she became more and more reluctant to talk. "She's been taking the paroxetine since the crash. I agreed to let her tell you but it's been four months."

"Four months and she didn't say anything?" Jim was slightly shocked. She thought he'd trust him enough to tell him what was happening.

Bones finished his coffee. "She didn't want you to know."

"Well, clearly..." Jim's tone was sarcastic and Bones let out a heavy sigh.

"I'm sorry, Jim." Bones apologised before taking the file back.

* * *

Starfleet Admiral John Sawyer looked over the file that had been sent to him. No new updates, but still worth a look at. There were reported sightings here and there…but nothing confirmed. Estelliana Noonien Singh and Rin Talley had vanished completely, and Sawyer wanted them found. They might be young, but they were still Augments – and a great threat.

Then there was the fact that Khan's vitals had been anonymously requested by someone over the Starfleet database. Sawyer was not sure who had accessed the file on Khan, but he was determined to find out. There was little doubt in his mind that it was likely the two young Augments. Although Captain Jim Kirk had assured Sawyer that Rin had abducted Estelliana, Sawyer was much more inclined to believe that the two were working together.

Sawyer looked up as the elevator doors open. The cold hit him first, and he pulled his jacket tighter around him, trying to conserve some heat. The officers in the room snapped to attention as he stepped out. He might not have the same aura of authority that his predecessor Alexander Marcus did, but he still commanded respect.

"Are there any more details on the incident?" Sawyer asked of one officer, who shook his head vehemently.

"No, sir," he replied. "Khan Noonien Singh's database was accessed precisely three days ago, but we can't determine the point of origin or establish the identity of the person who accessed it. Still completely anonymous. They'd have to know a lot about technology, sir. Looks like a hack."

"Hmm." Sawyer was convinced that Estelliana had something to do with this now – and he knew that there were people who could find her. "How long has Kirk's crew been on shore leave now?"

"Nearly ten days, sir," the same officer responded.

Sawyer walked past the officers, inspecting the rows of cryo pods containing the sleeping Augments. For a few moments, the only sound was of his boots against the cold metal, until he stopped beside one cryo pod and stared down at the closed eyes and cold, pale face of Khan Noonien Singh. The Augment leader might be in cryo, but it was his daughter that was the problem now.

_Where are you hiding, little girl?_


End file.
